By Uche Mbah
Nigeria has lost an election bid as a judge at the international Court of Justice, known as the International Criminal Court, ICC The Source has learnt.
The Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Ishaq Bello, who was the Nigerian nominee, lost his election bid.
The ICC was established to prosecute crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, and aggression by nationals who are member countries.
It is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, and comprises of 123-member countries.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Bello on June 20 for the position amid reservations over his qualifications to be admitted into such an International Court made up of erudite scholars.
His failure does not quite come as a suprise, as earlier reports said assessors had initially complained about the depth of his legal knowledge after his nomination, thereby setting the pace for his eventual rejection.
He was ranked very low among the twenty Judges nominated for the position. They claimed the judge lacked knowledge of ICC’s activities.
The results of the poll released by the International Court indicates that, Bello polled 12 votes out of a total of 117 votes in the first round of the election, becoming the second lowest votes got during the election after Milandou Prosper of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After the second round, he was reported to have polled only five votes out of 110 votes, representing 4.5 per cent of the total votes cast.
Every three years, the Assembly elects six new Judges to replace one-third of its 18 judge for non-renewable terms of nine years. Elected members must have got two thirds of votes cast by the member states, and Bello performed below par in this regard
This paved way for Korner Joanna and Lordkipanidze Gocha, nominees of the United Kingdom and Georgia respectively, to emerge victorious out of the 18 candidates.
